Nicola Nuttall
Doing it for Laura
Fundraising for The Brain Tumour Charity
Story
Our beautiful daughter Laura started her first term at Kings College University in London studying International Relations in September, she'd worked so hard to get her 3 grade A's and was just getting used to student life when she started to suffer headaches, nothing serious just persistent and annoying headaches.
She went to the GP and he said to monitor the situation.
Laura joined the University Navy Corps and as part of the process she had a medical and an eye test. During the test the optician recognised abnormalities behind Laura's eyes and referred her to Moorfields Eye Hospital.
As the diligent student she is, she first went back to college to do a presentation on Iraq and then went on to hospital and was referred to a Neurologist.
The next day she became quite sick so her sister and I travelled down to London, arriving late on Tuesday night. We took one look at Laura and took her in a taxi straight to Homerton Hospital.
At 3am she went for a CT scan and an hour later, our lives changed forever as Laura was diagnosed with 2 brain tumours. She had a further MRI scan later that morning and it became apparent that she in fact had at least 6 brain tumours.
So 6 weeks after we had helped her get settled into her new university accommodation we had the heartbreaking task of packing up and bringing her home again.
Back in the North West, Laura met with a neurologist and it was decided that surgery needed to take place as soon as possible. The largest tumour was starting to cause seizures and pressure was dangerously high within the skull.
Surgery took place at Salford Royal and although she'd had a major seizure that morning, it went well and Laura made a good recovery from the craniotomy.
A week later, we got the pathology results and the worst possible news; Laura was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, which is the most aggressive Stage 4 brain cancer.
We were devastated and horrified to find out that the prognosis was so poor with this disease, the most common length of survival following diagnosis is 12 to 15 months, with fewer than 3 to 5% of people surviving longer than five years. Without treatment, survival is typically just three months.
As a family we couldn't believe that our beautiful intelligent girl with so much life ahead of her, was basically facing a death sentence. It's just heart breaking.
So since surgery, Laura has had a gruelling 6 weeks of radiotherapy and she's now taking oral chemo for 5 days each month for 12 months.
We're also trying a huge range of supplements and repurposed drugs, anything we can find that has the slightest chance of stalling this disease and giving Laura the chance of a decent life.
We were astonished to find out that Brain cancer kills more children and adults under 40 than any other form of cancer and yet only 1% of the total cancer research budget is spent on research.
The odds are against us and all the other families in the same position, A Cure Can't Wait and we want to help the Brain Tumour Charity to support families like ours on a day to day basis and to help in the search for a cure for this most deadly of diseases.
Laura is now a Young Ambassador for the Brain Tumour Charity and #teamnuttall are working to support in any way we can. Firstly I'm running (slowly) the Virgin London Marathon, then Dad Mark is doing a Sky Dive in June and Gracie (little sister) David (Grandad) and I are running the Great North Run in September
The Brain Tumour Charity is at the forefront of the fight to defeat brain tumours, making a difference every day to the lives of people with a brain tumour and their families. They fund pioneering research to increase survival, raise awareness of the symptoms and effects of brain tumours and provide support for everyone affected to improve quality of life. They are committed to having the biggest possible impact for every person affected by a brain tumour, and to defending the most amazing part of the human body.